Referee McAllister finds reward after rowing in behind daughter Lauren

Cork referee Cathal McAllister was a busy man last weekend.

On Saturday evening, McAllister took charge of Antrim’s historic All-Ireland U21 hurling semi-final win over Wexford, but that was just a fraction of his hectic schedule.

And, ironically, he started and ended the day in the Ulster county, despite hailing from Aghada in East Cork.

McAllister’s daughter Lauren was part of the East Ferry Rowing Club contingent which travelled to Carnlough in Antrim for the Irish Coastal Rowing Championships and, not wanting to miss either of her races over the weekend, he had to cover approximately 760km in the car on Saturday.

“We left home at about 1.30pm on Friday,” McAllister said, “and we were up at about 6pm.

“I was lucky that Lauren’s race on Saturday, the U12 girls, was at 9.30am, so I was able to leave at around 11am.”

That enabled him to get to Thurles at 3pm for a 4pm throw-in.

“An hour is plenty of time,” he said of preparing for a game. “You don’t want to be hanging around for too long either, you’ve enough time for a cup of tea and a sandwich and then to get ready.

“The road down was fine, it was motorway for most of it. The worst bit was going from Carnlough to Belfast where it was a bad coastal road.”

After a bite to eat with his umpires in Horse & Jockey following the surprise result, McAllister was back on the road at 6.15pm, ahead of Lauren’s second race on Sunday morning, when she competed in the U12 boys’ category.

Unfortunately, that, like the girls’ race, resulted in a fifth-placed finish for East Ferry.

“It was disappointing,” he said, “the girls more so as we had won all of the local regattas and the county championship. The standard was high, but the teams which came second and third, we had already beaten. In saying that, it was a good weekend for the club, we won 11 medals; five gold and six bronze and were also named the most outstanding club, which was some consolation.”

While Lauren took up the sport off her own bat, she might have influenced her father in doing so too.

“I was asked to get involved to help out with some of the land-based training,” he said.

“It’s something that I might take up next year, as it’s very good for fitness.”

The bottom line though, is that his presence in Carnlough, and all of the travelling, was appreciated by his daughter.

“It was, to be fair,” he said. “Lauren’s steeped in the GAA, and when I got the U21 game both her and my wife Ann Marie said that I’d have to do it.”

And a remarkable weekend was topped off when McAllister was yesterday named referee of next month’s All-Ireland MHC final at Croke Park.